The Ultimate Guide to Mineral Makeup

If you’ve ever had even the slightest interest in makeup, you’ve probably seen a hundred adverts praising mineral makeup for being superior and countless celebrities touting it as the only thing they dare put on their precious skin. Has all the buildup and hype surrounding mineral makeup got you itching to try it? Well, if you’re after a glowy, luminescent, flawless finish with your makeup, look no further. Mineral makeup is for you.

Ok, but what exactly is mineral makeup? Just as it sounds, mineral makeup is made from micronized minerals, including titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, that has been finely milled until they’re just the right consistency. It’s often considered not only better than traditional makeup but healthier too since it usually lacks the ingredients that cause irritation and congestion and doesn’t contain preservatives, fillers, dyes, oils or fragrances.

Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are also superstar physical sunblocks, which is always a bonus. In addition to protecting you from harmful UVA and UVB rays, mineral makeup contains anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties on top of being antibacterial and non-comedogenic. Since minerals are inert (meaning they cannot sustain any life — like bacteria), they won’t clog pores. Makeup that helps the skin? Uh, hello, yes please.

“Makeup that helps the skin? Uh, hello, yes please.”

Many commercially available products are comedogenic and allergenic or irritating to the skin on some level. A huge reason why mineral makeup gets so much love from skincare professionals is because it doesn’t do those not so great things. It’s pure and actually quite soothing, especially after a laser or microneedling treatment, which is another reason we love it as much as we do.

Don’t get us wrong, we go just as nuts for all kinds of makeup too… but we strongly believe that your everyday foundation or BB cream shouldn’t be contributing to less than stellar issues going on in your skin. Think about it, you invest all this time and money into skincare and treatments for your face, only to then slather a thick layer of no-good chemicals over it for 8+ hours a day. It’s a bit counterproductive, wouldn’t you agree?

After all of that gushing, here it is, the big but: not all mineral makeups are created equal. Words like “organic,” “natural” and “mineral” are increasingly used to advertise or sell makeup but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the real deal. The problem lies within the mineral makeup industry itself.

While companies can choose to seek out the highest quality ingredients and approval from the USDA to prove their claims, the industry has no set standards. In other words, as long as there is a bare minimum, it can be called “mineral” makeup. Think of the difference like fresh-pressed orange juice vs. from concentrate. One is pure and one will contain many (sometimes harmful) additives.

Since we only allow the best for our NuAGE babes, we’ve chosen to partner with the pioneer of mineral makeup: Jane Iredale. Sound familiar? Well it should, considering it was launched over 20 years ago! One of the many things that sets Jane Iredale apart from other mineral makeup brands is that it is essentially skincare but with pigment.

You can wear your mineral makeup with confidence knowing that all of the essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to feed your skin are included. Jane believes that the most beautiful thing you can wear is healthy skin, and we couldn’t agree more!

Mineral Makeup for All Skintypes

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “No way mineral makeup is for me! Powders dry me out!” The reason for that would be that the ingredients in conventional makeup are not skin friendly, or maybe you were unlucky enough to try a makeup whose mineral claims were less than true. Conventional makeup contains synthetic and petroleum-based ingredients and many, many fillers. One of these fillers is talc. Talc makes up, on average, 75-85% of standard powders. This unfortunate ingredient doesn’t wear well all day and will go patchy, give a grey cast to the skin and dry it out.

Since the Jane Iredale line has no fillers, no moisture is leached from your skin by your powder! Each titanium and zinc crystal is coated, meaning it actually locks in a moisture layer between molecules. To go above and beyond in terms of their standards, Jane Iredale grows their minerals in their own lab to ensure the quality and purity are never in question.If these minerals were mined from the Earth to be used in cosmetics, they could never be cleansed enough. By having complete control over the process from start to finish, we are able to ensure that Jane Iredale truly is the best of the best.

To learn more about the extensive third-party testing that Jane conducts, click here. Some other things we love about Jane include:

The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends seven of Jane Iredale’s most popular products as effective broad-spectrum sunscreens AND Jane’s sunscreen formulas provide physical, not chemical, sun protection and are water resistant up to 40 minutes in moving water.

Every product is thoughtfully formulated for high performance and contains botanicals, fruit extracts and the highest quality minerals. All Jane Iredale products are hypoallergenic and do not contain parabens, petroleum, talc, preservatives, dyes, synthetic fragrances or bismuth oxychloride.

Jane Iredale loves animals! The brand is a certified cruelty-free cosmetic company recognized by both Leaping Bunny and PETA for its voluntary commitment to zero animal testing at every stage of its product development and manufacturing.

While Jane has many options available for foundations, we’re going to talk about our top three today: Amazing Base Loose Powder, PurePressed Mineral Base and the Glow Time BB Cream. Depending on the type of wear and finish you’re after, Jane has you covered.

Coconut Alkanes:Derived from coconut oil, coconut alkanes help the product spread evenly and they smooth the skin.

Titanium Dioxide: The FDA lists this ingredient as one of only two physical sunscreen actives and it has the added perk of providing coverage and colour.

Zinc Oxide: This one is also listed by the FDA as one of only two physical sunscreen actives.

*SPF 25 shades: BB1, BB3, BB5, BB6, BB7 and BB8

SPF 17 shades: BB9, BB11 and BB12

Have we lured you over to the mineral side? Lucky for you, we carry Jane Iredale at our Vancouver laser and skin care clinic. Get a complimentary colour match and touch up after your treatment at NuAGE and fall in love with Jane!

Reviews & Testimonials

Amazing results and service! Ellie and the team are uber nice and incredibly professional. They make you feel at complete ease while up close and personal with your lady parts. I got Brazilian and underarms laser and the service was 100% worth the investment. I went approx every 6 weeks for a year, the next touch up was 3 months later, then 4, and now I won’t go again for 6-9 months. Life changing to never worry about popping on a bikini at a moments notice - highly recommend!

Extremely happy with my experience here to date. I had a laser treatment for veins on my face. After only ONE treatment the vein disappeared completely! I am a super wimp when it comes to pain, but this procedure was not painful at all and quick. Ellie is very professional, but so sweet and patient. Looking forward to trying some of their other services here!

I can't recommend this place highly enough! I had laser hair removal treatments with Chantel and the results were really amazing. The hair is almost completely gone and I'm very impressed when the results turn out even better than advertised. Chantel is a real pro and she's always a pleasure and a positive force to be around. I was also nervous that as a man looking for laser hair removal options the centre would be mostly geared towards women, but I was made to feel right at home which I really appreciated. Thank you so much - I will definitely recommend you to anyone looking for hair removal or skin treatment options :)